Confidence and fitness returning for classy Cole

When England last played Portugal it was widely recognised as Ashley Cole's finest performance for club or country. He won his duel with Cristiano Ronaldo and ended Euro 2004 being hailed as possibly the most accomplished left-back in the world.

The accolades have been increasingly sparse during what has been a difficult period for Cole on and off the pitch, but there were signs against Ecuador that the player of old might be on his way back. He indicated yesterday that he might have been suffering from a confidence problem, as well as being not fully fit, but he emphasised that he was feeling more upbeat going into this weekend's renewal of hostilities with Ronaldo, if the winger recovers from injury in time.

"At the start of the tournament I don't think I played as well as I can," said the Arsenal defender. "I feel a little bit better in myself now. I feel better confidence-wise. Hopefully I can keep on progressing and getting better. I'm getting there. We have been training hard and the games are helping my fitness. I still need my touch to be a bit better but I am certainly feeling fitter than before."

One of the more candid England players, Cole spoke of the possibility of reaching the final "playing rubbish all the way" but said there were mitigating factors behind the team's poor performances and echoed Sven-Goran Eriksson's claim that they would improve against Portugal.

"We are not playing as fluently as we can, although I would also say it is quite hard on these pitches," he said. "They are really dry and it's difficult to get our passing game going. Portugal is going to be a harder test than we've had so far but normally with us it's a case of the bigger the game the better we play."

He described his block of Carlos Tenorio's goal-bound shot as "one of the most crucial challenges I have ever made". But he admitted that the team were playing under stress. "To be honest, you can't enjoy it. There is a lot of pressure on us. If we had lost we would have been killed by you guys [the media]."